Legislator Slain When Gunmen Ambush Convoy

Second Assembly Member Is Wounded

September 19, 2005|By Aamer Madhani Chicago Tribune

BAGHDAD — A member of Iraq's National Assembly was killed and another assembly member was wounded when gunmen ambushed their convoy as the two legislators traveled to the capital for a final reading of the draft constitution, Iraqi officials announced Sunday.

Faris Nasir Hussein, an assembly member aligned with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, was killed late Saturday, and his fellow Kurdish parliamentarian Haider Shanoun was wounded in the attack north of Baghdad. Hussein's driver and a brother who was traveling with him also were killed in the barrage of gunfire.

Many of the Iraqi legislators learned of the assassination after arriving Sunday for the assembly meeting inside the Green Zone to sign off on the draft constitution. The document is being forwarded to the United Nations, which will print about 5 million copies to be distributed to Iraqi citizens before the Oct. 15 national referendum on the charter.

The National Assembly honored Hussein with a moment of silence before approving the draft to be sent off to the United Nations. But news of the assassination seemed to overshadow the progress on the constitution.

Ibtisam al-Awadi, an assembly member from the southern city of Nasiriyah, said the assassination along with a string of attacks throughout the country over the past several days that left about 250 Iraqis dead have made it clear that Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's government is incapable of improving the nation's security situation.

"This happened because of neglect by the Interior and Defense ministries," al-Awadi said of the surge in violence. "This government should resign. There is no difference between them and Saddam [Hussein]."

U.S. and Iraqi officials have said that they expect insurgents to increase attacks in the lead-up to the Oct. 15 referendum.

Sunni Arabs, who in large part sat out the first national vote after the invasion, are being encouraged by clerics and political leaders to go to the polls to reject the charter. Little substantive change was made in the document to allay Sunni concerns before it was forwarded to the U.N. on Sunday.

The most contentious issue is language that allows autonomous federal states to be established. Sunnis fear that would weaken the central government and isolate them from oil revenue from areas dominated by the Kurds and Shiites.

Sunnis, who make up about 20 percent of the population, would need 66 percent of voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces to reject the charter in order to defeat it. Privately, U.S. officials say they are starting to consider that the constitution could be rejected next month and have begun contemplating how to shape a positive message about such an outcome.

Meanwhile, 20 bodies were found shot Sunday and dumped in the Tigris River near Balad, police reported. Four more bodies were found shot and handcuffed in east Baghdad, The Associated Press reported.

British forces Sunday announced the capture of two leaders of the Mahdi Army in Basra suspected of organizing attacks that killed nine coalition troops in Basra over the last two months.

Last year, U.S. forces twice quelled uprisings in Najaf Al-Sadr and the U.S. forces have sustained an uneasy truce for months.

In a statement, the British military tread lightly on the affiliation of the two suspects, Sheik Ahmed Majid Farttusi and Sayyid Sajjad.

"I am well aware that the people that we have arrested are prominent individuals," Brig. John Lorrimer, commander of the 12th Mechanized Brigade in Basra, said in the statement. "But let me make it absolutely clear: We have acted against them as individuals, not as members of any particular organization."

U.S. forces also announced Sunday that they believe a Saudi Arabian expatriate detained in a failed suicide bombing Friday of a Shiite mosque in Tuz Khormato was forced into the mission.

The man was captured outside a mosque shortly after another suicide attacker detonated a bomb outside a Shiite mosque in another part of the city. That blast killed at least 11.